Some glorious darkness from Toronto's Arts and Crafts label of late.

Much love for the “shadowy” side of the recent Arts & Crafts catalogue.

1. Trust, Joyland (Arts & Crafts). Trust’s grippingly grim debut LP, TRST, didn’t garner nearly the amount of attention it deserved in 2012, despite (or maybe because of) its somewhat uncharacteristic endorsement by the tastemakers at Toronto indie-pop institution Arts & Crafts. Cheers to the label, then, for continuing to throw its weight behind a good thing that only keeps getting better, even if that good thing perhaps hasn’t yet realized quite how good it is or what exactly, in fact, it actually is. Left to his own devices after the departure of Austra drummer Maya Postepski, Trust main man Robert Alfons — whose from-the-tombs baritone is a truly singular instrument and the project’s defining aural signature — has steered Joyland in a far less cloistered and mood-specific direction than its oppressively bleak predecessor. True, we’re still skulking about the dark and sleazy side of town here for the most part, but this time around there’s room in Trust’s vision for the pitched-up, helium-pop abandon of the title track and the awesomely titled “Lost Souls/Eelings,” along with some arrestingly open-armed hooks on “Icabod” and “Rescue, Mister.” The galloping “Peer Pressure” is almost joyous, in fact, in an old-school-trance sorta way. That said, the best bits are still gnawing and dirty and evil; “Four Gut” is the best industrial death-disco banger I’ve heard in a long time. Major.

2. Lowell, I Killed Sara V. (Arts & Crafts). Hype is often to be distrusted, but in the case of plucky, young Calgary-bred/Toronto-based songstress Lowell you’d do well to listen to us idiot critics for once. I Killed Sara V. is a monstrously self-assured debut, quirky enough for the cool kids but also so relentlessly accessible it’s not much of a stretch to foresee a Feist-sized mainstream crossover looming on the horizon. I have no idea how this Canadian ingénue wound up doing the whole Apparatjik “supergroup” thing with members of Coldplay, A-ha and Mew at the Roskilde festival last year, but it’s easy to see from the brazen attitude and bona fide pop chops displayed throughout this five-song EP why such “name”-name types might want to keep Lowell close. “Cloud 69” sing-song struts like prime M.I.A., while the “Are you fai-ai-ai-thful / Are you true-oo-oooo?” chorus to “88” is as indelible as anything Gaga’s come up with in awhile. By the time the time the title track rolls around, you’ll be like: “Why isn’t Lowell Lorde big, already?” And she probably will be.

3. The Tunnel. What’s that, ambitious young Australian reporter? You think the government’s hiding the truth about those disused tunnels beneath Sydney? Why don’t you and your (doomed) crew descend into the catacombs and see for yourselves what’s happening down there? Aaaaaand . . . that’s when the C.H.U.D.s come out to play. Obviously. If you took that last statement as a spoiler, you’re probably not among the intended audience for this rather good low-budget creep-out. The rest of you, delight in a well-executed exercise in exactly what you think you’re getting into.